SIXTH PART: THE PASSION, CHAP. 22. AND 23. The Saviour had taken up a truly royal attitude in the temple. Now this short anticipation of His kingdom, the normal blossoming of His prophetic activity, is over; and limiting Himself to a silence and passivity which have earned for this period the name... [ Continue Reading ]
FIRST CYCLE: THE PREPARATION FOR THE PASSION, LUKE 22:1-46. This cycle comprehends the three following events: Judas preparing for the Passion by selling Jesus; Jesus preparing His disciples for it at His last supper; His preparing Himself for it by prayer in Gethsemane. I. _The Treachery of Juda... [ Continue Reading ]
The narrative of Luke embraces: 1. The preparation for the feast (Luke 22:7-13); 2. The feast itself (Luke 22:14-23); 3. The conversations which followed the feast (Luke 22:24-38). 1. _The Preparations: Luke 22:7-13_. There is a marked difference between the ἦλθε, _came_, of Luke 22:7, and the ἤγγιζ... [ Continue Reading ]
II. _The Last Supper: Luke 22:7-38_. We find ourselves here face to face with a difficulty which, since the second century of the Church, has arrested the attentive readers of the Scriptures. As it was on the 14th Nisan, in the afternoon, that the Paschal lamb was sacrificed, that it might be eaten... [ Continue Reading ]
1 _st. Luke 22:14-18_. Jesus opens the feast by communicating to the disciples His present impressions. This first step corresponds to the first of the Paschal feast. _The hour_ (Luke 22:14) is that which He had indicated to His disciples, and which probably coincided with the usual hour of the sacr... [ Continue Reading ]
2. _The Supper: Luke 22:14-23_. There are three elements which form the material of this narrative in the three Syn.: 1 _st._ The expression of the personal feelings of Jesus. With this Luke begins, and Matthew and Mark close. 2 _d._ The institution of the Holy Supper. It forms the centre of the nar... [ Continue Reading ]
2 _d. Luke 22:19-20_. The time when the Holy Supper was instituted seems to us to correspond to the second and third steps of the Paschal feast taken together. With the explanation which the head of the house gave of the meaning of the ceremony, Jesus connected that which He had to give regarding th... [ Continue Reading ]
3 _d. Luke 22:21-23_. “ _Only, behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table._ 22. _And truly the Son of man goeth, as it was determined: But woe unto that man by whom He is betrayed!_ 23. _And they began to inquire among themselves which of them it was that should do this thing.... [ Continue Reading ]
3. _The Conversations after the Supper: Luke 22:24-38_. The conversations which follow refer: 1 _st._ To a dispute which arises at this moment between the apostles (Luke 22:24-30); 2 _d._ To the danger which awaits them at the close of this hour of peace (Luke 22:31-38). The washing of the feet in... [ Continue Reading ]
1 _st. Luke 22:24-30_. The cause of the dispute, mentioned by Luke only, cannot have been the question of precedence, as Langen thinks. The strife would have broken out sooner. The mention of the kingdom of God, Luke 22:16; Luke 22:18, might have given rise to it; but the καί, _also_, of Luke, sugge... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat._ 32. _But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not; and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren._ 33, 34.” The warning Luke 22:31 might be connected with Luke 22:28: “ _Ye are t... [ Continue Reading ]
2 _d. Luke 22:31-38_. Jesus announces to His disciples, first the moral danger which threatens them (Luke 22:31-34); then the end of the time of temporal well-being and security which they had enjoyed under His protection (Luke 22:35-38).... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _And He said unto them, When I sent you without purse and scrip and shoes, lacked ye anything? And they said, Nothing._ 36. _Then He said unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip. And he that hath no_ [sword], _let him sell his garment, and buy one._ 37. _F... [ Continue Reading ]
III. _Gethsemane: Luke 22:39-46_. The Lamb of God must be distinguished from typical victims by His free acceptance of death as the punishment of sin; and hence there required to be in His life a decisive moment, when, in the fulness of His consciousness and liberty, He _should accept_ the punishmen... [ Continue Reading ]
SECOND CYCLE: THE PASSION, LUKE 22:47 TO LUKE 23:46. The death of Jesus is not simply, in the eyes of the evangelists, and according to the sayings which they put into His mouth, the historical result of the conflict which arose between Him and the theocratic authorities. What happens to Him is that... [ Continue Reading ]
1. _The Arrest of Jesus: Luke 22:47-53_. Three things are included in this piece: 1 _st._ The kiss of Judas (Luke 22:47-48); 2 _d._ The disciples' attempt at defence (Luke 22:49-51); 3 _d._ The rebuke which Jesus administers to those who come to take Him (Luke 22:52-53). VERS. 47 AND 48. The sign w... [ Continue Reading ]
(1.) Luke 22:54-62. _Peter's Denial._ The account of the evangelists presents insoluble difficulties, if Annas and Caiaphas dwelt in different houses. Indeed, according to Matthew and Mark, who do not mention the examination before Annas, it is at the house of Caiaphas that the denial must have take... [ Continue Reading ]
2. _The Judgment of Jesus:_ Luke 22:54 _to Luke 23:25_. 1 _st. The Ecclesiastical Trial: Luke 22:54-71_. This account contains three things: (1) St. Peter's denial (Luke 22:54-62); (2) The evil treatment practised by the Jews (Luke 22:63-65); (3) The sentence of death pronounced by the Sanhedrim ... [ Continue Reading ]
(2.) Luke 22:63-65. The evil treatment mentioned here is the same as that related by Matthew and Mark, and placed by them after the sitting of the Sanhedrim at the house of Caiaphas. It is the parody of the _prophetic_ knowledge of Jesus, the ridicule of the _Jews._ We shall afterwards see the deri... [ Continue Reading ]
(3.) Luke 22:66-71. _The Morning Sitting._ It is impossible to determine to what extent the Sanhedrim required to repeat in their morning sitting what had passed in the night one. But we are justified in allowing that some details of the one were applied to the other by tradition and by our evangeli... [ Continue Reading ]